A Pledge on Short Fiction

It's been a while since I last read a work of SF that I really enjoyed.  Egan's Incandescence had flashes of brilliance obscured by a disastrous central theme and Harkaway's The Gone-Away World has prose to die for but is a clear 200 pages too long.

As you can probably tell from reviews like this, my frustration is starting to show as book after book feels stunted and inadequate.  I recently tried changing tack by taking on Morgan's The Steel Remains but the result was a reaction that combined THIS with THIS. 

I've decided to switch to short fiction for a while.  Every time I read short fiction I say that I should read more of it and so I intend to do so and I think that making it an avenue for my critical output will encourage me to follow up on that pledge.  It's also getting a bit dull putting the boot into established authors who should be doing better.  Hopefully by reviewing short fiction I shall get the chance to discover some new authors who are more deserving of critical coverage.

I have one more novel-length review pledged and but other than that, you will not see me review another SF novel before the new year.  There may be decent books that appear between now and then but they will have to wait.

So Sayeth Jonathan

Comments

[Niall]

Hopefully by reviewing short fiction I shall get the chance to discover some new authors who are more deserving of critical coverage.

Entirely possible. Just don't expect a better hit rate...

[Jonathan M]

I won't. I did go through a phase of reviewing Interzone a while back and for every great story there were 4 okay ones and 2 bad ones. But at least the bad ones don't last hundreds of pages :-)

[Tinkoo]

For short fiction, you might want to try this list.

It's a mix of old & new, online & paper - heavy on online & old, but there are new ones too. At least someone found these stories good.

There is a quick test too - whether your tastes are likely to match: if you like most familiar stories from this list but not from this, tastes are likely to be compatible. Else forget about list recommended.